Through the wonders of the Internet, I was able to get two different cue sheets for Lilac Time. One was a standard cue sheet by James Bradford, complete with the usual pieces by James Bradford. He certainly liked to promote his Chanson Algerienne. The other is a curiosity. It calls itself a "Phototone" cue sheet. The Phototone machine was basically a two turntable record player. You could play one record while changing the other, similar to the two-roll Photoplayer piano. Or a two projector changeover system. It was useful for creating scorers from records, a technique that must have had a very short shelf life. This cue sheet was type written, so less polished then the official cue sheet from James Bradford. It uses fewer cues, but all of them are cues that are on the Bradford cue sheet, so I expect that whoever created this Phototone cue sheet had the Bradford cue sheet as a reference. From what I've heard of the Vitaphone sound track, neither cue sheet uses the same pieces. Except, of course, for "Jeannine I dream of lilac time," which appears in all three scores.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

Interesting to learn of the Phototone cue sheet. Lee Erwin told me he operated one of these for a theater at the tail end of the silent era. Imagine being a full-time film organist and then having to do this. Isn't this the same sort of dual-turntable unit that Buñuel used for initial showings of "Un Chien Andelou"?

The American Music Research Collection at CU Boulder has at least 35 of the Phototone cue sheets. (Check page 9 of this PDF Catalog for the titles.)

Each line gives the usual short-hand info: cue number, whether you're looking for an Action or a Title, the cue itself, the record catalog number, publisher, abbreviated title of piece, and approximate duration. The publisher is indicated by a one-letter code, and at the bottom is the key:

V-Victor G-Gennett C-Columbia B-Brunswick

Though most of the pieces are clearly music: "Jeannine," "Thunderer" (presumably Sousa's march), "Le Secret," "Heart Wounds," etc.; there's a recurring record called "Airplane" from Gennett Records (Cat. 0136). It's used for five cues where airplanes are flying. UCLA has a Gennett record collection, but the finding aid doesn't list anything called "Airplane."

According to Wikipedia, Gennett Records was an outfit in Indiana that made a lot of recordings of folk, jazz, religious, and blues musicians; and is best remembered for these records. But the entry includes this bit:

The Gennett Company was hit severely by the Great Depression in 1930, and massively cut back on record recording and production until it was halted altogether in 1934. At this time the only product Gennett Records produced under its own name was a series of recorded sound effects for use by radio stations.

My guess is that Gennett #0136 is just a recording of an airplane engine, perhaps first made for movie theaters but once talkies came in, marketed just to radio shows.

So, like Wings, it looks like there were parts of Lilac Time where the music disappears and we just get effects. At least, if you use the Phototone score.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

I've seen mentions of Phototone being a subsidiary of Starr Piano, which Gennett was also a subsidiary of. Gennett apparently pressed all of their discs, and if you get some of the older ones, you'll find a Gennett label underneath the Phototone label. Rodney, you are correct in assuming the airplane disc is probably just sound effects—I've come across a number of the Phototone discs and they're mainly sound effects. The turntable was a large oak affair with two turntables, amplifiers and potentiometers to fade between the two.

Victor, of course, had their Pict-ur-disc label that had many Photoplay recordings.

There is a big screening in L. A. on August 15th. Is this the event, or is there hopefully another one? Because this says music by John Mirsalis, with brief Vita-phone track. Brief, I thought all but three reels of the sound discs scoring tracks survived? Although it wasn't actually Vita-phone at all.

Home : Events & Exhibitions : Events : Hollywood Takes to the Air - Lilac Time

Hollywood Takes to the AirMore Sharing ServicesShare | Share on email Share on facebook Share on twitterLilac Time

Special guests: Craig Barron and Ben Burtt

With live musical accompaniment by Jon Mirsalis, featuring brief Vitaphone track where it survives.

Based on the play by Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin, this silent romantic war story takes place during World War I, when a young British aviator falls in love with a farmer’s daughter while stationed with his squadron in France. As the flyers head off on a dangerous mission, the pilot promises to return to his beloved. Lilac Time was the first big aviation film released with a synchronized Vitaphone track. The film was shot silent, but music and sound effects were added in post-production. The film paired major star Colleen Moore with rising leading man Gary Cooper, fresh off his breakthrough role in Wings. Airplane crack-up master Dick Grace did some major stunts in the film, and aerial footage shot for this film reappeared in the 1930 film The Dawn Patrol.

CRAIG BARRON has contributed visual effects to more than 100 films including The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Hugo. He earned an Oscar® nomination for his work on Batman Returns and received an Oscar for Visual Effects for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

BEN BURTT's first two Oscars® were Special Achievement Awards for the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices featured in Star Wars and for Sound Effects Editing for Raiders of the Lost Ark. He has since earned Oscars for his work on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and nominations for Return of the Jedi, Willow and WALL-E, among others.

Yes! That's the showing. Ben Burtt and I had hoped to bring Mont Alto out to perform the gaps between the discs, but unfortunately that didn't work out. Jon will give an excellent performance, I'm sure -- he's a real undersung hero in film music and film preservation (and has his own 16mm print of the film). Three of the discs are known to survive, but Ben was having trouble getting access to two of them. I expect he's still working on it!

In any case, I've got the cue sheet now, should we ever be called on to create a score for the film.

There are some curious things going on with the intertitles in the surviving print of that film too... they often have very strange wording, and don't match the cue sheet text, and I expect they're from a foreign release.

Rodney Sauer
The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com"Let the Music do the Talking!"

There are some curious things going on with the intertitles in the surviving print of that film too... they often have very strange wording, and don't match the cue sheet text, and I expect they're from a foreign release.

If memory serves, those were replacement titles that were translated/reprinted from foreign titles.